The Sacramento Kings sent a representative to Vatican City to present Pope Francis with his very own jersey. He looked at it briefly and then was pretty much done with it the same way your kids will quickly move on from one gift to the next in about a month. Then it was on to the next Pope thing.
It's scene we've seen so many times before. Someone from a sports team giving an important world leader with a customized jersey. Usually it has the year or corresponding presidential number or something cute as the number. Strangely, the Kings just gave away Keegan Murray's number away for nothing. Then again, even in an era of player empowerment you can't really complain too much about a veteran like the Pope coming in and getting his pick of jersey digits.
We certainly aren't advocating for the tradition to end because there's nothing like someone very important taking time out of their day to pretend to like some jersey they'll never wear. But we would very much like for some intrepid journalist/podcaster to look into a very important question.
And that is: what the hell happens to all the stuff teams give dignitaries that have less than 0.0 percent chance of ever being in the same room with their new owner ever again? It would be pretty sad if they are just thrown away but that feels just as likely as these things being cataloged and neatly tucked away for a future use that will never come.
Like, just imagine if the Pope came out for a primetime mass and had a Kings jersey on over his robe. That would be a story. What if he liked it so much he refused to ever take it off? History would forever note that. Three hundred years from now people would know that Francis was the one who took full advantage of getting Fanatics swag.
Maybe the White House has a special room with a million jerseys accumulated over the years. Anything is possible. But we'd really like to know what happens when a ceremonial prop becomes just another shirt.
At the end of the day, we have to respect the confidence it must take to give the Pope a jersey from California's fourth-most popular team and expect him to give a single damn about it. Shooters shoot.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Giving The Pope a Sacramento Kings Jersey Is Incredibly Funny.
